UFC Fight Night 281: Dricus Du Plessis full post-fight interview

Congrats on the win. Just wanted to get your overall thoughts and assessment of your performance. I don't know. To be honest with you, I felt completely in that flow state tonight. I felt I did everything that we trained and yeah, it felt great. Every round felt like it was mine and I'm so happy that I got to showcase the takedown defense. I'm glad that I got taken down once and I could show that even if you get that, you're not holding me down. The game plan worked perfectly. Me and my team, my coach, we worked on this game plan. It was it was perfect. I think it was the perfect plan and yeah, I think I don't think I could have done it better. The big thing was obviously I could have gone for that finish but the big thing about that was to go improve. I said Stilnox 2.0 is here. Part of that was showing the composure, not just going crazy and every time I caught him I could have gone crazy and go for that finish but you know I basically had four or five finishes tonight. I was just about to ask that. Typically you do a lot of blitzing and you're very aggressive and tonight you seemed a lot more calculated even when you had him hurt. It didn't seem like you were rushing in a lot. Was that a point in this camp to just settle down a little bit and more just like let the shots come as opposed to like forcing the issue a little bit? Yeah, I wouldn't say it was a point in the camp. It's been 11 months. It was a point of the small margins at this level that make you either champion or contender and I don't like to be a contender. You're obviously getting a big win over Kamaru. Right now the middleweight title is kind of in flux. You said earlier this week it'd be a little bit ridiculous if Hamzat got an immediate rematch. Do you think with this performance you should be in line to get another shot at the title especially having two wins over Shawn? Absolutely. And then if you don't get the title shot next would you welcome a rematch with Hamzat instead if that was not a fight that was given to you and would you like to run that one back given the way it happened last August? Absolutely. What's going on DDP? Previously you kind of had this beef with Izzy and then here with Kamaru regarding are you a true African champion or not. Kind of just settle the dust here. Are you the true African champion? Who won both fights? You did. So you said it, not me brother. My man, I think it's all respect. You know with me and Izzy that whole thing got out of context. I mean I think we have so much respect for each other after sharing the Octagon. I have respect for any man and after being in there with Uzman tonight for five rounds, that man deserves all the flowers in the world for the career that he has had. So does Adesanya. These are incredible, incredible athletes and we as Africans we inspire a whole continent and it's not a lot of us in the UFC especially at this level at the top and it's only been an honor. I mean tonight was the second time ever that it has been an all African main event and I've had the honor of being part of both of those and that's a massive honor but I mean beef, there is no beef. We represent our continent and we do it so very proudly and tonight there was no there was no beef in there tonight. It was two warriors going at it and I think we showed that to the world. And I respect the respect that you're showing your past opponents but talk a little trash to the rest of the middleweight division right now as far as Imamov and Strickland, he's the champion, you beat him twice. Why are those guys not on your level? Because I beat him twice and I don't even know if Imamov is still fighting. Is he? He's still fighting? Imamov? I mean yeah it's been a while. And the last one for me, tell me about the desperation going into this fight from your standpoint because there's potentially a world if you lose to Usman, maybe you don't get another title shot in the future. Looks like you're lined up for one now. Was desperation on your mind heading into this fight? There's not a world where I would have lost tonight. I said that. There's no world where I lost tonight. If I had to cut off a limb to beat him with, I would have done that tonight. You know that loss again, my last fight, losing that fight, I hated it. I absolutely hated it and desperation is not the word but I'm a winner and losing doesn't sit well with me. Yeah I was gonna ask you now, how much motivation was that last fight for you? People forget how quickly how much of an athlete you are. After one loss people are riding you off. I mean what kind of motivation was that for you? You are 100% in that. People forget everything. I mean especially MMA fans but they are the best and the worst in the world. They forget every good performance you've had of the one bad one and well after tonight they'll probably forget about the worst one too. What was the focus of your takedown defense? Were you looking for underhooks, trying to stay off the fence? What was kind of the game plan coming into tonight? No it was about being able to defend and counter whatever he throws at me. It wasn't about one technique. It wasn't that. I don't think people realize what we did, me and my coaches, me and my team. I don't think they understand the changes we made. For every takedown you do I have three or four different things that I could do because if you have one that's where the problem comes in. It was just all around me being better at that and you know what was great tonight? I didn't go out there and think about I don't want to get taken down because I had the confidence because me and my team we worked on that. We worked on if this guy shoots on you okay he gets you down what do we do now? Because if you are worried about that takedown it's probably coming and now I'm not focused on my striking. That's why I could be so composed tonight in the striking. That's why I could be so precise with my striking because I didn't care if he shot on me because he did. He did shoot on me and I wasn't worried about it because even the time he got me down I was so happy about it because he took me down I could prove. You can take me down but I'm standing right up and that that's what it was all about is proving that you know this is MMA. So bring everything you have and let's see who's the best. Dragos, congrats on the win tonight. You already said you had the perfect game plan. It felt like you went to that high kick a lot. Obviously we know the history with Kamaru with that and you commended his defense of it. Was that something that you really emphasized throughout this camp? Yes yes and the head kick wasn't such a big part of the plan. It wasn't. The head kick was there we practiced it but wasn't such a big part because my coach and I we spoke about we said listen the head kicks always there and I said well after his one knockout that loss that changed the trajectory of his career I think the man knows how to defend and he does. I don't think I landed one lean head kick every time there was a hand in between so his defense was great but you know being quite the shorter fighter and he has a tendency to lean that way so the head kick landed. The head kick landed and I capitalized. I caught him through the hands and you know those head kicks they hurt. If I catch you clean with that you're going to sleep but I mean that man just every time I rocked him he just recovered. This is crazy. And secondly it's been nearly a decade since the UFC has been back in this city. It felt like there was a good 50-50 split for both you and Kamaru. How did you feel the atmosphere was here tonight with UFC back in the city? I have to say I gave the challenge that I said Australia has a much better crowd than I felt in Vegas. I think Vegas are spoiled. I think they're spoiled with all the fights they get but I could feel tonight that it hasn't been here. The atmosphere was absolutely electric. Walking out even the people booing that it was such you know they were loving the booing and the people that were cheering they were doing a great job. It was yeah I would say 50-50. I would maybe say 70-30 in my favor but it was weird. It was weird walking out to hearing cheers and it's it was good. It was a good change of pace but usually I was I was preparing just for the booze so thank you Oklahoma. It was it's amazing and I will definitely come back to Oklahoma not just to fight but I enjoyed the place. Tarikis you mentioned the 11th month 11 month layoff. How often would you like to get back in there moving forward and when would you like to get back in there? I don't know. The only thing I'm thinking about right now is the celebration of this fight. Just a couple of final ones for me. Were you at all surprised that Kamaru didn't shoot more often? Obviously you proved that you got right back up the one time he did take you down but were you a little surprised about the fight that he didn't try at least a little bit more? I think if you go watch the fight back I think he tried a couple of times. I think you know with the knees with the knees it forced him to he couldn't just shoot like he usually does you know he shoots deep and with those knees if you're running to them it's gonna be a good night so every time he did shoot he would go below the knee almost like just trying to grab that leg it's not gonna happen it's not gonna happen so I think he shot I could hear his corner especially after round three they said okay take this guy down but no he shot he shot plenty but I was ready for it. And then Brandon Allen one of your other fellow middleweight competitors tweeted out after your performance tonight DDP sucks end of story just curious to get your thoughts on him. Why don't he go I mean Brandon Allen just goes and fights like number 20 ranked guys right yeah so I mean I'm glad he has Twitter. And last one on a lighter note how good did the beer taste? Amazing absolutely amazing. Congrats Rikis. Thank you. Yeah one more for me obviously we'll never know what it's like to win a five-round war like you did tonight how do you celebrate tonight after that win? How do I celebrate? I'm going home I'm gonna eat whatever it is the celebrations will start tomorrow and that will be a lot of beers my craving for this camp was wings American wings blue cheese sauce and that's yeah for every wing I'll have a beer that's probably gonna be it.